ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2386 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2386 ************************************ 25 Nov 2001 From: Ursula Whitcher Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether a form of the name would be appropriate for a Welsh man living around either 500 or 1400 AD. The Welsh language changed a great deal between 500 and 1400 AD, and names from these time periods look very different. We'll begin by discussing forms from 1400 AD; we'll also discuss a thirteenth-century form, which may be closer to your original idea. Then we'll talk about a possible version of your name around 500. is a modern name; we believe it is a combination of the names and . There were several prominent Welshmen named in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and we believe that is an appropriate spelling for this period. [1, 2] Unfortunately, we cannot find any evidence that was used after the thirteenth century, so we cannot recommend it for use around 1400 AD. [3, 4] However, is a fine name for your period. [7, 8] If you would like to choose a different Welsh name, we can recommend the following articles: "A Simple Guide to Constructing 13th Century Welsh Names" http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/welsh13.html "A Simple Guide to Constructing 16th Century Welsh Names (in English Contexts)" http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/welsh16.html Patronymic bynames, which identify a person's father, were common in Wales throughout your period. The name you have chosen for your father, , is an unusual modern spelling of a name that was written as , , or during the Middle Ages. Beginning with the thirteenth century, we find only forms that start with , so would be the best choice for the father of a man living in 1400. [5, 6] The word means "son of". Thus, a man named whose father was named generally would have been known as . This name would have been pronounced \GWIN ahp KRAH-dahk\. Locative bynames, which tell where a person is from, were rare in Wales; they were used only 1% of the time in the thirteenth century, rising to about 3% in the sixteenth century. [7, 8] As you noted, there is a place named in modern Wales. [9] We found a farm with this name in seventeenth- and nineteenth-century records. [10, 11] However, we could not find any evidence that a place called existed around 1400. Thus, we must consider whether is a reasonable placename for that time period. In Welsh, the word can mean "garden", "enclosure", "mountain ridge", or "woodland". The "garden" meaning derives from a Norse word, so we would not expect a place name that used in this sense to appear before the tenth or eleventh century, when the Norse had a strong presence in Wales. The word means "eagle", and it could also mean "edge" or "boundary" in the Middle Ages. [12] We found medieval place names that used each of the elements and . [13, 14, 15, 16] Since Welsh place names often included the names of birds, we believe that a c. 1400 place called is not unreasonable. [17, 18] Locative bynames in Welsh almost never used prepositions, so a man named from a place called would have been called simply . This name could have been pronounced \GWIN GARTH AIR-ihr\. Documents written in English or Latin sometimes used the Latin word , which means "from". Thus, Gwyn Garth Eryr's name could have been written as in an English document. [7] Patronymic and locative bynames could be combined in your period, though using one or the other was more common. Thus a man named living around 1400, who came from a town called and whose father was named , might have been known as . (We believe this name would have been pronounced \GWIN ahp KRAH-dahk GARTH AIR-ihr\.) However, this man would have been called simply more often. English and Latin documents combined patronyms with locative bynames more frequently than Welsh documents did. In an English document, the Welsh name might have appeared as . [19] Any of these bynames is possible in the thirteenth century, when was in use. In particular, is a typical thirteenth-century Welsh name. We believe this name would have been pronounced \MILE-gun ahp KRAH-dahk\, where the \u\ sounds like the \u\ in the word . or is also possible. [7] The form of Welsh spoken around 500 AD was very different from modern or medieval Welsh. Our knowledge of this early language is incomplete and depends on interpretations that require considerable background knowledge. Therefore, reconstructions of names from this period are difficult and often uncertain. It happens that we have examples of the names that eventually evolved into and , so we can make a more reliable recommendation in this case. Around 500 AD, all documents in Wales were written in Latin. We found the name , a precursor of , in a document written c. 540. [20] The Latin equivalent of is . The Roman writer Tacitus used this form, and we believe it is also appropriate for your period. [22, 23] Some form of the name was certainly used, since several later writers refer to fifth- and sixth-century people named . [21] The name of a man who was called and whose father was called could have been recorded as or . (Changing to puts the name in the Latin genitive or possessive case; the change is analogous to adding the <'s> in English .) We have no way to guess what a c. 500 Welsh spelling of the name behind might have looked like. However, we believe the spoken Welsh form might have been pronounced \mahgh-l@-GOO-n@ ~bhah-b@ k@-r@-DOH-gih\. The \@\ represents the sound of "a" in "sofa" and "about", which is known as "schwa", and \~bh\ stands for a nasalized, voiced "b" sound. [24] We found no evidence that bynames based on places were used in Wales around 500 AD. [25] I hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. In particular, please write to us if you would like to find out about other placenames that used the words or . I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Arval Benicoeur, Adelaide de Beaumont, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Will Dekne, Talan Gwynek, and Mari neyn Brian. For the Academy, Ursula Georges 25 Nov. 2001 References: [1] Peter C. Bartrum, _A Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in history and legend up to about A.D. 1000_ (Aberystwyth: The National Library of Wales, 1993). . [2] Thomas Jones, _Brut Y Tywysogyon_ (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1941). [3] Heather Rose Jones (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "Names and Naming Practices in the Merioneth Lay Subsidy Roll 1292-3", in Known World Heraldic Symposium Proceedings, 1991 (SCA: Laurel, Maryland, 1991). may represent . (This is an Anglo-Latin source). This is the latest instance of that we have found. [4] Bartrum, _Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts_ (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1966), p. 47 refers to a fourteenth-century manuscript that discusses earlier people named , suggesting that this is an appropriate spelling for the fourteenth century. [5] Heather Rose Jones (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "Names and Naming Practices in the Anglesey Submissions of 1406", in "Y Camamseriad" issue 4, Summer, 1996. [6] T.J. Morgan and Prys Morgan, _Welsh Surnames_ (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1985). s.n. Craddog. [7] Heather Rose Jones (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "A Simple Guide to Constructing 13th Century Welsh Names", http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/welsh13.html (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1996) [8] Heather Rose Jones (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "A Simple Guide to Constructing 16th Century Welsh Names (in English Contexts)" http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/welsh16.html (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1996) [9] Dewi Davies, "Welsh place names and their meanings by Dewi Davies" (Aberstywyth: The Cambrian News, Aberystwyth, Ltd.) [10] Clwyn-Powys Archaeological Trust, "Projects - Historic Landscape Characterisation" (WWW: CPAT, accessed 2 Nov 2001) http://www.cpat.org.uk/projects/longer/histland/tanat/1003.htm [11] "Llansilin Marriages" in "Morris Shropshire Genealogy" (WWW: 13 Oct 2001) John Powel of Gartheryr, Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant married Elizabeth Morris in 1844. http://www.morris5199.fsnet.co.uk/llanmar.html [12] _Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru_ (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, several dates). s.vv. gardd, garth, eryr. [13] Paul Vinogradoff and Frank Morgan, eds., _Survey of the Honour of Denbigh, 1334_ (London: The British Academy, 1914). (several other spellings), modern (several other spellings), modern aka (cae = field, enclosure) which suggests the "garden" sense , modern , the second element, if transparent, would mean "claw, nail" -- the location appears to be in a river valley, which suggests the "garden" sense , the second element seems to mean "banded, striped, which suggests the "garden" sense , possibly modern , the second element is a personal name Meilyr, which suggests the "garden" sense [14] M. Richards, _Welsh Administrative and Territorial Units_ (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1969). Some placenames strongly suggest the "mountain ridge" sense, e.g., ( = gap, pass), ( = ice, glacier) [15] B.G. Charles, "The Place-Names of Pembrokeshire" (National Library of Wales, 1992, p.150) 1602 "Eagle's bald [peak]". [16] J. Gwenogvryn Evans, _The Text of the Book of Llan Dav_ (Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales, 1979) (Facsimile of the 1893 Oxford edition). appears in a boundary description (roughly 8-10th c.). The context in this case makes it clear that has the "mountain" sense. [17] Melville Richards, "Fridd/Frith as a Welsh Place-Name", _Studia Celtica_ vol. 2 (1967). (falcon) 1540 [18] Melville Richards "Welsh 'dryll' as a place-name element", _Indo-Celtica_, ed. Herbert Pilch & Joachim Thurow, 1972. (ravens) 1602 [19] Jones, "Names and Naming Practices in the Anglesey Submissions of 1406". Approximately 1% of the names have the format , with 2/3 of them using in the locative, and the others using a bare place-name. [20] Gildas. _The Ruin of Britain and Other Documents_ (Phillimore & Co. Ltd.: London, 1978). Vocative . [21] Bartrum, _A Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in history and legend up to about A.D. 1000_. . [22] Kenneth Jackson, _Language and history in early Britain; a chronological survey of the Brittonic languages, first to twelfth century A.D._ (Edinburgh, University Press, 1953) p. 290. The name appears in Tacitus. [23] Jackson. The expected form can be extracted easily from the phonologically-similar appearing in a mid sixth-century inscription. [24] To make the sound \bh\, put your lips together as if you were going to say \p\ or \b\, but relax them slightly so that some air can escape between them, and make a buzzing sound. If in addition some of the air escapes through your nose, that's \~bh\. [25] Heather Rose Jones (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "The First Thousand Years of British Names", http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/british1000/ (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998)